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lOHN A. PKriK> 



MEMORIALS 



OF THE 



Bar of Lincoln County 



MAIXE 



1760-1900 



H V K. K. S K AV^V L T^. 



" Bcnciiicta est expositio qiiaudo ns redimitiir a destnictione.'''' — 4 
Coke, 26. 



WISCASSET: 

TiiK SH::i:rscoT Echo Print 

1900 



'-in 



' ? '/ 



riemorials of the Bar of Lincoln County. 

SECOND EDITION. 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 

1 Chief Justice John A Peters i 

2 Pemaquid Harbor, site of Jamestown i8 

3 Town of Popham's Fort St. George, by sketch of a 

Spanish Spy .■ 19 

4 Jamestown and St. Charles, Capital of Cornwall 

County, A. D. 1665-1677 24 

5 Samuel Denny's Homestead, Arrowsic Island, First 

Lincoln County Judge 30 

6 Wiscasset, Shire of Lincoln County, as seen from 

Edgcomb Heights in 1858 3 i 

7 Court House Lincoln County, Wiscasset, erected 

18^4 33 

8 Water View of Old Fort Edgcomb and Batteries. 

from the quay and Penobscot Oak on Folly 
Island 36 and 38 

9 Court Room Lincoln Bar 40 

Tragic Death of Judge Thomas Giles 26 and 29 



At a meeting of the Lincoln County Bar Association, held at the 
Court House, in W'iscasset, on the sixth day of March, 1900, it was 

I'oicd : That Messrs. R. K. Sevvall, Cieo. \\. Sawyer, and Emerson 
Hilton be a committee to negotiate and provide for the printing, for 
the use of the Bar. of one hundred copies of the report of the proceed- 
ings on the occasion of the banquet given by this Bar. Nov. 3, 1899, 
in honor of the Hon. John .A. Peters, the voluntarily retiring Chief 
Justice. 



Memorials of Lincoln Bar. 



INTRODUCTION. 

I'.V K. K. SEWAI.I., ES(^). 

Under the administration of the late Charles Weeks, 
Esq.. as Clerk of the Courts, Lincoln bar held an historical 
reunion at Squirrel Island on Saturday, August 18, 1883. 
Organized and executed with success by the clerk, the 
literary exercises consisted of an historical sketch by R. 
K. Sewall, a poem b)- Benjamin F. Smith, and "post 
prandial exercises" by addresses from Judge Barrows, 
Nelson Dingley, Jr., M. C, and gentlemen of the bar 
of Lincoln and Sagadahoc. The entertainment was served 
at the Samoset House, on Mouse Island. It was the 
first service of the bar relating to its historical incidents, 
and a formal, distinguished and successful gathering 
under conduct of the Sheriff of Lincoln County and a 
Judge of the Supreme Court of Maine. 

The suppletor)- matter of the present issue was then 
and there elaborated and is now introductory to the 
colonial narative of this memorial issue. 

As an outgrowth of pre-existing conditions of 
colonial civil life, forces prevailing in England, having 
organic effect in the charter of the loth of April, 
1606, the charter part)- of the Popham voyage and 
landing on the coasts of Maine, in August, 1607, and 
practicall)- applied on the peninsula of Sabino of 
Sagadahoc, in a formal act of "seizure and possession"' 

I (lorgfs. Mass. Hist. cul. \ul. iS. 



of New England under the English theories and 
application of the law of valid land title, Lincoln bar is 
the legal representative of this English common law 
antecedent in New England. In its personals eminent 
men have practised more or less at Lincoln bar. John 
Adams attended Court at Pownalboro in i 765.' William 
Gushing, a graduate of Harvard, 1737, came to Lin- 
coln and was the only resident lawyer prior to 1769. 
He was Chief Justice, and Sargent, Sewall and Sumner, 
associates, at the opening of the S. J. Court in 1786. 
Cushing was created associate justice of the Supreme 
Court of the U. S. on its organization in 1789. Daniel 
Webster, it is said, attended a case at Lincoln bar and 
George Evans, John Holmes, and Benj. F". Butler have 
practised at Lincoln bar; and our honored senator, Wm. 
P. Frye, acting president of the Senate of the U. S., was 
admitted to practice law at Lincoln bar. 

Our record of notable men at this bar would be 
incomplete without the names of Hon. Samuel E. Smith, 
for four years governor of the state ; Hon. John Ruggles, 
late of the senate of the United States ; and the fact 
that the Hon. Chief Justice of J;he Supreme Judicial 
Court of Massachusetts died on the bench in this County 
of apoplexy on the second day of the court, whose 
monument in marble is yet standing in the old Wiscasset 
graveyard, inscribed "Erected by the members of the bar 
practising in the Supreme Judicial Court of this Common- 
wealth, to express their veneration of the character of 
Hon. Samuel Sewall, late Chief Justice of this court, 
who died suddenly in this place, June 8th, 1814." 



I Frontier Missionary, p. 82. 



CHAPTER I. 

La7u of ''Seizin and Posscssioii' as a Factor of I'alid 

Land Title. Jts Origin and Application as a 

Colonial Factor in Xcio England. 

LAW AS A ( 1\ IL ELEMENT. 

Law and the Christian rehgion are types of the 
highest developement in human civilization, and are not 
only props but pillars of state. Both are rooted in the 
principles of natural right and justice ; and summarily 
expressed in the Mosaic code of the rock-written 
decalogue. 

It is a philosophical axiom that order is nature's 
first laio. Hut order is a fruition — the creation of law. 
Back of all order, in the chaos, where cause and effect 
w^ork out issues, there must be a law-maker ; and while 
law marshals organic relations of each molecule of matter, 
every throb of thought, all acts of the will, in material, 
mental, moral, social, civil and religious organism, it is 
only an expression of purpose, developement of design, 
movement of a plan by force of an intelUgent cause. The 
law^-maker is behind all. Law links the chain which 
holds all creation to its activities, and in its proper place 
all its forms, natural, moral and civic. Society is one of 
them, and the state an aggregation thereof, an outgrowth 
of law. The integrity of the state is upheld by force of 
law which keeps in proper action to their true functions 
the underlying forces of right and wrong in life's drama. 
Law is therefore a science, and right and wTong the 
sphere of its operations. 



Law as related to valid land title in English juris- 
prudence, known as that of "seizin and possession" is. of 
ancient origin and as held and applied, is a common law, 
appurtenant to, and safeguard of, homestead rights in 
land. This common law force was brought into use as 
a factor in colonial adventure in foreign lands early in 
the history of North American empire, by England as an 
initial step. 

In 1492 the fact of a new continental world in the 
west from Europe was revived and certified to the 
niaritime nations of Europe. In 149^^ the lands of the 
new continent were partitioned to Spain and Portugal in 
virtue of alleged Divine vice-geral authorit)-, by Pope 
Alexander VI, as a dotal act. This act startled and 
excited England and PVance. The question of the 
validity of such title was raised. France wanted Adam's 
will produced and the clause in it shown by which she 
was barred from a share in the new world. England 
appealed to natural right, and declared there was no 
good title in newl)- disco\'ered land without possfss/o;i. 
It was her common law doctrine of scizhi and possession. 
A legal issue of international scope was started and grave 
questions of homestead holdings abroad opened among 
the nations. The British lion shook his mane in 
parliamentar)- ferocity. Bristling with resentment at 
Papal presumption, England roared : ^'prcscriptionc sine 
posscssionc Jiaiid valcat'' and prepared to enforce her 
common law jjostulate of homestead holding, as an 
element of international law applicable to trans-atlantic 
titles instead of Papal dotal title. The English dogma 
was novel. It was also revolutionary. Spain was 
supreme in prestige and power on land and sea and a 
favorite of Rome. 



9 

National issues of trans-atlantic title had become 
involved with other matters of state. England was 
resolute. The issue narrowed to more or less of religious 
prejudice and church perquisite. Spain was incisive and 
led oH, not only as the champion of her right to the 
exclusive possession of her church dotal in the choice 
lands of the American continent, but also in the 
assumption of the Divine vice-geral authorit)- and 
persquistes of the Pope. More than a centur)- had 
passed since the Papal grant, when, in 1580. England 
declared' that by the law of nature and nations seizin 
and possession were the sole grounds of good title to 
newly discovered lands ; whereupon this issue became 
the battle ground of statemanship and diplomac\- in the 
leo^al arena of international ri^ht. 

THE CRISIS. 

The argument ended in 1588. Spain decided to 
cut the Gordian knot with the sword. She marshalled 
an "Armada," heralded the invincible, and called her 
great American captain and dog of war, Pedro Menendez, 
to lead it. Death intervened to defeat his leadershij-, 
and the fleet entered the English channel on the 19th 
of July, 1588, under another command. 

Encrland fathered her wooden bulwarks, massed her 
guns in defense, to storm the channel waters under her 
Admiral Drake. On the 21st of Jul)- battle was joined. 
Fifteen different engagements were fought. The con- 
flict raged to the 27th of July. For six da)s a cyclone of 
fire and shot swept the sea around the shores of England. 



I Holmes annals \'ol. i. p. i. 



lO 

Spain lost five' thousand men and seventeen ships 
of war, sunk, burned and scattered. This catastrophe 
of arms and storm cleared the sea of Spanish supremacy ; 
and Eng'land vaulted to empire and became herself 
mistress of the sea, a position she has ever since held. 
Thereafter the English common law of "seizin and 
possession" became a great colonizing force. 

England and France at once applied the beneficent 
principle to trans-atlantic homestead life on North 
American shores. English maritime restlessness and 
enterprise in the west organized to discover and take 
"seizin and possession" of eligible sites in the new world. 
In 1602 the Concord, Gosnald, master, was chartered 
and started in execution of the enterprise. This ship- 
master conceived the plan of a new and direct route 
across the sea to American shores as the winds and 
currents would permit. It was within the parallel of the 
43d degree N. L. In seven weeks he struck New England, 
on the coast of Maine, in a land full of hillocks,, an out 
point of tall grown trees ahead north, a rocky coast at a 
point fringed with white sands. It was a sunrise view 
of a May morning. A Spanish sloop with native sea- 
men, some clad in European costume, came along side 
and chalked a map of the country on the Concord's deck 
and called it "Ma-voo-shan." The relation of Gosnold 
arrested the attention of the commercial circles of Eng- 
land. In 1605 a "new- survey" of this Gosnold land 
was projected, and the ship "Arch-Angel," Capt. Geo. 
Weymouth, was sent out from the west of England to 
execute it, which was done before autumn and in latitude 

1 I'eig's Hist. Chronology. 

2 Strachv. 



1 1 

north, 43 and 44 degrees. This survey made discovery of 
a magnificent harbor, the Httle River I'emaqiiid and the 
notable River Sagadahoc, the great river of the country 
of Mavooshan. the landfall of the Gosnold voyage of 
1602. This landfall of harbor facilities, hillocks, rocky 
shores, fringed with white sands, and rivers described, 
became in England a coveted point of commercial and 
colonial attraction, valuable for "seizin and possession." 
The relation of Gosnold supplemented by the Wey- 
mouth survey fixed in England the 'louts in quo of emi- 
nent domain for a "great State." 

The spacious harbor, grand river tributaries, mag- 
nificent woods of great mast trees and oak ribs for ships, 
abounding seashore fisheries, beaver haunts and otter 
ponds, were the appreciated features of commercial and 
industrial promise "of places fit and convenient for 
hopeful plantations."' 

Gosnold's landfall of the Ma-voo-shan country, the 
beaver haunts of the Sheepscot and Kennebec, Pema- 
quid and Muscongus, environed with the "strangest of 
fish ponds" in the sea, and land marks most remarkable 
from Monhegan and its island archipelago with hills north 
and east and the twinkling mountains of Aucocisco in the 
west, in 1606 had become a land of promise to the 
commercial industries of England for a seat of empire in 
North America. 

But France had forestalled England in the applica- 
tion of her law of seizin and possession to the lands of 
the new w^orld and planted colonial foothold in New 
F^no^land on the St. Croix River, east of Ma-voo-shan 
in 1604. Nevertheless, recognizing the legal tenure of 

I L barter, 1620. 



12 

the French occupancy, England hastened to make good 
her legal hold in the lands west. On April loth, 1606, 
the English purposes to utilize her common law of seizin 
and possession in North America in the latitudes of her 
surveys took form and expression in legal muniments of 
contract. 

The Chief Justice, Popham, of the bench of England, 
organized a corporate body on a crown grant hedged 
with specific agreements. "We do grant and agree,'' 
is the opening of the contract. In tenor it was a license 
conditioned to the issue of future and further conces- 
sions. The grantees were government contractors. The 
transaction was a formal, legal conception of a valid 
permanent title of possession of homestead holdings of 
the English race at the points of seizure, discovered and 
seized as "fit and convenient"' places for making of 
habitations and leading out and planting of volunteer 
subjects of Great Britain. The contractors agreed to 
build and fortify where they should inhabit ; and could 
lawfully colonize onl)- such residents as would voluntarily 
emigrate. Permanency of possession, homestead estab- 
lishment of English people, alone could fulfill the 
conditions precedent of the colonial undertakings. Such 
a colonization accomplished, insured, under ro)al stipula- 
tion, endowment of plenary- right to the fruits of their 
undertaking to the contractors, their heirs, assigns and 
successors, in letters patent or crown deed to the lands 
by them seized and occupied, which issued in the great 
New Elngland charter of 1620. 

I need not say the facts above stated were a practi- 
cal- expansion and enforcement of the English common 

I Cliarter, 1606. 



law doctine of valid land title to North American soil, to 
serve purposes of state as well as corporate interests. 
The contract of the loth of April, 1606, pregnant with 
the forces of English common law land title, at once 
began to untold the era of English colonization north of 
Florida, in E^nglish cartography marked "Verginia." 

Two colonial adventures were started within definite 
bounds for the shores of North America, known as the 
first and second colonies. This scheme for seizing and 
• establishing a legal land title in right of the English race 
on North American soil, was applied in Maine and set 
to work (Hit natural results with all the machinery of 
law into which the civilizing forces of Christian ethics, 
natural right and justice fully entered to shape an embryo 
state on the 20th of August, 1607. 

TME RKiHT ASSERTED. 

The PVench, who had forestalled the English in a 
'"seizure and posscssioir east, alert to extend the posses- 
sion of the Celtic race in New England, some three years 
after the English seizure witliin the 43d degree and a 
supposed abandonment, on rumor thereof at St. Croix, 
planned an expedition to seize the abandoned region, led 
by Captain Plastrier, the French commander. Reaching 
Monhegan, a dependency of Pemaquid off Popham's 
Port, two PLnglish ships from the little harbor of Monhe- 
gan captured Plastrier and held him prisoner by force 
and arms till he promised to return east and abandon his 
purpose of expansion of French territory ^t the expense 
of English rights of possession in the latitude. The 
Englishmen produced letters of royal authority in 
justification of their acts,' saving" they were masters of 

I Caryon's letters. Dairil's narrative. 



H 

the place," probably the charter of the loth of April, 
1606, of the Popham colonial enterpise. This public 
assertion of land title in rioht of the English race was 
the earliest outgrowth of the English law of seizin and 
pessession recognized as an element of international law 
now put in force in the colonization of North America. 

The charter licence of April loth, 1606, (and 
charter party of the Popham colony), is therefore the 
guarantee of land titles to colonial life in New England. 
The common law of land titles in P^ngland applied as an 
international right to the soil of the North American 
continent, in its expansion and application to colonial 
holdings prior to 16 19 and in virtue of the Popham 
colonial startat Sagadahoc, established legal possession 
of New England in right of the P^nglish race and settled 
English homestead life in more tJian one place, agreeable 
to the desire of the colonial settlers on the coast of Maine. 
On the 20th of August. 1607, the climax of P^nglish land 
title was consumated, on Thursday, when all the colonists 
landed at Sagadahoc, and the President, Popham, ''sef f/ie 
first spit of ground^' to fortif}', and after him all the rest 
followed, thus waiving and merging the ancient symbolic 
act of seizure by "turf and twig," by breaking the soil 
with a spade. 



CHAPTER II. 

LINCOLN" (nLMNE) UAK. 

lis Colonial Rootlets i6oj. and Climax iSy(^. 

In English jurisprudence the bar represents a 
conception and contri\ance in the administration of law, 
founded on the Roman idea of a tribunal of justice. The 
bar is a factor of our civilization. It is, in fact, a duly 
organized body of men. schooled and skilled in the 
principles of justice to be an organ of sovereignty, to 
determine questions of right and wrong in society, and 
enforce the demands of natural justice, agreeably to good 
conscience and fair dealing'. 

Lincoln bar is the representative of legal procedure 
in the earliest appliances of the common law of England 
in New England as a colonial factor. Originally its 
jurisdiction embraced a section of the coast of North 
America in and about 44 degrees N. L. : — a country 
specifically located between Cape Small Point and the 
eastern expansion of Pemaquid dependencies, on dis- 
covery, in 1602. called b\- the natives "Mavoo-shen"' ; in 
the PZnglish colonial transactions of 1607 contracted to 
"Moashan"^ ; and in the annals of colonial P^nglish 
literature described as "The Kingdom of Pemaquid. "^ 
The earliest civil organization for general legal jjrocedure, 
was formed into a ducal province, as the count)- of 
"Cornwall." after that of England, the home in the 
fatherland of man\- of the earK" imm it-rants thereto. 



1 Hutchinson Hist. Ma[) 

2 Popham's despatch. 

3 Strachy. 



i6 

Lincoln was applied to the same civil jurisdiction in 
1760, in honor, (it is supposed), of the ancestral home of 
(jovernor Pownal, who signed the act creating the county. 

With these facts relating to the origin, succession, 
name and jiwisdictiojial territory of Lincoln bar, we 
proceed to the facts of antecedent administration of law 
and justice within its bounds; together with the princi- 
ples of civil polity on which the administration vested 
underlying legal rights. 

We therefore go back to the reign of Queen Eliza- 
beth of England, when her nobility besieged the throne 
with calls of urgency for English colonial seizure and 
planting of North American soil. "The wings of a man's 
life," they cried in her ears, "are plumed with the feathers 
of Death,"' till the hesd of the English bar was autho- 
rized to act in the premises, and the Royal Licensure of 
April 10, 1606, was issued, — the charter-party of 
the Popham colonial exodus from England, in 1607, 
embracing a code of civil principles which were organized 
on the colonial landing, and into its Pemaquid expansion, 
and enlarged in the patent of February 20, 1631, and 
there reduced to practical use in the judicial construction 
of a civil polity on the basis of the common law of 
England. 

The hrst court organized in New England was 
within the ancient jurisdiction of Lincoln County and in 
Popham's town of Fort St. George, where first were 
applied the forces of the common law of England as a 
colonizing agency. The antecedents of Lincoln bar were 
the outgrowth of the royal charter aforesaid : — an inden- 



I Brown's Genesis. 



ture drawn up by Lord Chief-Justice Popham of England. 

Its execution began in the English seizure and 
possession August 20. 1607, of the peninsula of 
"Sabino," the west shore of the mouth of the Kennebec 
river, then, as now, known as the "Sagadahoc," its 
Indian name. The colonial grant was a pregnant act, 
having fuller expansion at Pemaquid and old "Sheepscot 
farms," up to 1689; ^^^'-^ matured in the administration 
of law, as now\ at Wiscasset Point in i 794. 

The unfolding of the charter of April 10, 1606, 
started English homestead life and industries on North 
American shores in lat. N. 43 to 44 degrees. One 
hundred and twenty English colonists landed under 
the English tlag. The site of a town was chosen. The 
hrst act was solemn consecration of the spot by the 
worship of God and a sermon, according to English 
canonical law and formularies of the English Episcopal 
Church. A code of law was promulged and civil polity 
organized, and a court of law^ opened. 

Sir George Popham was nominated, not as a vicero)-, 
governor or mayor, but as president of the embr\o 
state, to wield the sovereignty thereof, and duly inducted 
to office, with subordinates, by solemn oath. 

The material fruits of the movement were an English 
hamlet of fifty houses, a warehouse, a church with a steeple 
to it, an elaborately entrenched fort, well mounted with 
guns, a ship)ard with a thirty-ton vessel on the stocks 
and a court of law. 

The president, with sworn assistants, were the Court 
officials. It had a seal. "Sigelluni Regis Magnae Brit- 
ianiae, Franciae .et Hiberniae,"' was the legend of one 

I l''ipham Memorial vol., Appendix S. p. 133. 



i8 

side ; and on the other, "Pro ConciUio Secundae Colo- 

niae, V^irginiae," 

All the rights, privileges and liberties of English 
home-born citizenship were guaranteed. Trial by jury 
and the writ of habeas corp2is were grants of right to the 
people.' 

Every safeguard of life, personal liberty and 
l)roperty, to the English common law appurtenant, was 
set about the new homestead life of the English race here, 



n 




^ 



PEMAQUID HARHOK. 

(Site (if "Jiuiiestown." Capital nf Conwall County. (1665), and Fort Charles. ) 

as a hedge, even to the use oi the elective franchise in 
the civil office of chief magistrate.' So all the forces of 
Christian civilization were planted at Sagadahoc. Tumults, 
rebellion, conspiracies, mutinies, sedition, manslaughter, 

1 hleni, Appendix A, p. 94. 

2 "These my loving subjects shall have the right annually to elect a president and 
make all needful laws for their own government," etc. Memo. vol. page 94. 



19 
incest, rape and murder were capital crimes. Adultery, 
drunkenness and vagrancy were penal offenses." 

All offenses were required to be tried within the 
colonial precinct. Magistrates were ordered to hold 
sentence on judgments recovered, in abeyance for appeal 
to royal clemency to secure a chance for pardon. To 







ao of Si Ge5rg-c e rjf( I Pop*^a" 



» Spar-' 



facilitate this feature of legal mercy, the court was 
required to keep full records and preserve the same. 
Preaching of the Christian religion was ordained as 
matter of law, as well as Christian teaching- and civili- 
zation of the Indians. 

It will be seen the scope of jurisdictional issue of the 
court at its colonial start in this county was substantiallv, 



1 See Charter, April lo, l6o6. 



20 

as relates to crime, the same in its cognizance as now. 

No records of the adjucHcations of the court of 
Pophani's town of F'ort St. George have yet been re- 
covered. 

The only legal public paper extant is a dispatch of 
President Popham to the King of England, dated at the 
old town, December 13, 1607, detailing present success 
and incidents of promise of the colonial holdings, written 
in Latin, the then language of state papers. 

Lord George Popham, the first president of a civil 
magistracy (shall we say within the United States?) and 
first chief justice of a court of law within the ancient 
jurisdiction of Lincoln County, is described as having' 
been an aged, God-fearing man,' stout built, honest, dis- 
creet and careful, somewhat timid and conciliatory ; but 
he was the life of the colony, made up of London men 
and West of England rural life. 

Rawley Gilbert, second in command, representative 
of the London city element of the colonial adventure, is 
said to have been a very different man from his chief. 
He is described to have been a "sensual, jealous and 
ambirious man, of loose habits, small experience, poor 
judgment, little religious zeal, but valiant," and a mis- 
chievous factor in colonial affairs. 

The prudent Popham, nevertheless, reconciled 
differences and soothed friction during his administration, 
which ended with his life in February, 1608. The last of 
January, fearful thunder, lightning, mingled rain and 
snow, hail and frost, for seven hours in awful succession 
overwhelmed with cyclonic winter rigors the colonial 



I Brown's Genesis of the United States. 



21 

hamlet at Sagadahoc. It survived the climatic rigors, but 
encountered, the death of its godly chief on February 5, 
1608. further to experience catastrophe in the selfishness, 
irresolution and caprice of the Gilbert succession to the 
management of the life issues of the new beginnings. 
Popham was no doubt a victim to the climatic convul- 
sion of the January storm. 

The spring brought timely supplies from England. 
Capt. Davis reported "he found all things at Sagadahoc 
in good condition : — many furs stored, and the "\lrginia." 
a prettt)-, thirty-ton vessel, built, launched, ready for 
service." 

Nevertheless Admiral Gilbert planned a return to 
London ; and ha\ing the s)-mpath)- of the London faction 
of the colonists, set sail in the London ship "Mary and 
John." with the pretty "Virginia" and her master-builder. 
Digb}- of London, laden with colonists in s)-mpath)- at 
least with Gilbert, — abandoning the colonial Sagadahoc 
river site. "The colonial president was dead, and Admiral 
Gilbert had sailed awa)- on or about the eighth of October, 
1608. with all but 'fort)-five' of the colonists,"' is the 
story of Captain John Smith. So it is not certain there 
was entire consent to the return of all the colonists on the 
official abandonment. It is certain the Popham Hagship. 
the "Gift of God." and her fly-boat or tender, are not 
mentioned in the return. 

But the Lord Chief Justice of P^ngland, Sir John 
Popham, had died, and his son F"rancis had succeeded to 
his father's estate ; and by him it seems this abandonment 
was protested. It is certain the Popham interest in the 
colonial adventure did not concur in the Gilbert move- 

I Smith, Mass. Hist. Soc. vol. i8, p. 1 15. 



22 

ment. Sir Francis . withdrew his father's ships and 
interest from the corporation, and put them in service on 
the same coast in the fur trade and fisheries, out of which 
a "Port" was created and opened at Pemaquid ; and of 
sucli influence, importance and extent, that the great 
historian of our colonial life in New England, Strachy, 
recorded "that to the north in the height of (lat.) 44 
degrees lyeth the country of Pemaquid : — A kingdom 
wherein our western colony upon the Sagadahoc was 
sonie time settled." 

History so connects Pemaquid and Sagadahoc in the 
Popham colonial planting of English life, law and civiliza- 
tion here and within the ancient jurisdictional limits of 
Lincoln Bar. 

The settlements were of the same colonial parentage ; 
and we must now turn to Pemaquid in further search of 
colonial court procedure. 

Prior to 1625, the Popham interest at Pemaquid had 
grown to an expansion as well as a concentration of 
commercial industries, absorbing the entire trade of 
Indian peltries on the main ; and population had increased 
at and about Popham's "Port," described on John Smith's 
great map of New England, and sketched at the head of 
John's Bay named "St. Johnstown," so that land had 
become valuable for speculative purchase. 

In 1 6 14, when Smith made his surveys from Mon- 
hegan Island, for the great map of New England, he 
found the Popham "Port" and describes and sketches it 
at the head of John's Bay, and gave it the name of "St. 
John's Town. Here one John Brown, a mason, had 
settled, and began the purchase of large bodies of land, 



under Indian titles. "Sa-ma-a-set"' the "Lord of Pema- 
quid," favored Brown's greed for land. Popham's port 
of "St. Johnstown," had now become "New Harbor," in 
the annals of the day. 

Robert Aldworth, mayor of the city of Bristol, Eng- 
land, had established a trade plantation at the mouth of 
Pemaquid River, and transferred a branch of the mer- 
cantile hrm of Aldworth <& Elbridge, of that city, to the 
west shore of Pemaquid Point, to utilize the harbor trade. 
Abraham Shu rt was the resident agent of the firm, and 
an English magistrate of the plantation. 

Brown, Sa-ma-a-set, Ungoit (probably Samosset's 
wife), and Shurt here executed the first deed of a great 
land deal, with the neat, compact formulary of acknowl- 
edgement still used in New England, of which Abraham 
Shurt was the author, and probably used a formular)- of 
the common law of England, as follows, viz : "July 24, 
1626, Captain John Samoset and Ungoit, Indian Saga- 
mores, presonally appeared, and acknowledged this 
instrument to be their act and deed at Pemaquid, before 
me, Abraham Shurt." This is the only record of a formal 
legal transaction, with the implied existence of a magis- 
trates' court and record, earliest in the Pemaquid 
section of the Sagadahoc colonial settlement. 

In 1 63 I, the AkKvorth and Elbridge Plantation had 
grown to the importance of an emigrant depot, with a 
ship of 240 tons, sixteen guns, in current trade with 
Bristol, England, called the "Ano^el Gabriel," unfortu- 
nately driven ashore and wrecked in the harbor of 
Pemaquid in an August gale, 1635. ^^^ business 



I M Historical Collection, vol. 5, pp. 16S, iSC), Sam )ss=t <>( riyiiiouth History. 



24 

expansion of this harbor site had reached the sea-island 
dependencies of Monhegan and Damariscove and a 
proprietor's court was organized and held there, of 
which Thomas Elbridge was the judge, to which the 
inhabitants of these islands (and no doubt the neighbor- 
ing mainland communities) resorted for redress of legal 
grievances. We have yet found no records of this court 
extant. Its charter privileges and scope of civil rights 
are found in the Pemaquid patent, granted Feb. 29, 1631. 
A census of the year preceding shows eighty-four 
families, besides fishermen, appurtenant to this planta- 
tion.' Indeed this Pemaquid settlement was larger and 
more important than the capital of Canada." The bill of 
civil rights to the people of Pemaquid recites that its 
issue was made with a view to "replenish the desert with 
a people governed by law and magistrates !" It author- 
ized a democracy in scope and practice as perfect as that 
of this day, of which our existing concessions of civil 
rights, we think, are offshoots. 

The principle of a majority rule was set in the 
machinery of civil power at Pemaquid. "PVom time to 
time, (it was declared), the people may establish such laws 
and ordinances for government, and by such officer and 
officers as most voices shall elect and choose."'-^ Such 
w^ere the principles of civil right and law, laid as the basis 
of legal enforcement and adjudication of the proprietors' 
court at Pemaquid till Sept. 5, 1665. 

On the twelfth of March, 1664, the great fishing 
plantation of Aldworth and Elbridge, and Popham's 

1 5tli vol. Mass. Mist. Soc. Col., p. 197. 

2 5th Vol. Mass. Hist. S.ic. Col., p. 190. rhoniton. 

3 See I'eniai|ui(l Patent. 




^ M 



^ Q 






•* JS 



25 

estate on the east side possessions, were acquired by the 
Crown of Great Britain, and converted into a ducal 
province for the Duke of York, under the st)le of 
"Pemaquid and Dependencies." A new civil organiza- 
tion was created Sept. 5. 1665, by a royal commission at 
*'Sheepscot Falls," which held its sessions at the house 
of John Mason. 

Pemaquid and its dependencies were erected into a 
county, called Cornwall, and two towns as centers of 
administration of civil affairs were created. The chief or 
capital embraced the Pemaquid Harbor Plantation, 
Islands and "New Harbor," the old Popham Port, and 
named "James Town" of Pemaquid, probably in honor of 
James, Duke of York, the royal proprietor of the 
Province. 

The "Sheepscot F'arms," were created a shire town, 
called "New Dartmouth," probabl)-. from the fact that 
most of the population were immigrants from Devonshire, 
and its river "Dart." 

A new legal tribunal was organized, called "Court 
of General Sessions," and made a court of record. Its 
sittings were held on the last Wednesday of June and the 
first Wednesday of November. The November session 
was at Jamestown, where the chief justice resided. The 
circuit was held at New Dartmouth. 

Sullivan sa)s this court had jurisdiction of ecclesias- 
tical affairs. In disagreements of opinion. Chief Justice 
Jocelyn decided. William Short' was clerk of court at its 
Jamestown sessions ; and W'alter Philips, at the New 
Dartmouth sessions, who resided in Newcastle, near the 
bridge. 

I M. f list. Col .J vol. 5, p. 57. 



26 

The records were described "Rolls and acts and 
orders, passed at sessions, holden in the territories of the 
Duke of York." John Allen of Sheepscot was high 
sheriff. This important record has ■ not yet been found. 
May it not yet exist among the title papers in the royal 
family or archives of York in England ? 

The precepts of this court, with a declaration of 
claim, authorized a capias against a respondent. 
We have notes of one trial for murder at Pemaquid, in 
November, 1680. Two parties were arraigned, Israel 
Dymond and John Rashley, for the murder of Samuel 
Collins, master of a vessel called the Cumberland, by 
drowning him. Of final results, we have no record. 

But we have record of this court of the trial of John 
Seleman of Damariscove in the New Dartmouth shire, 
Nov. 16, 1686, for assault on the sheriff, and threats of 
murder of his wife. On plea of not guilty issue was 
found for the king ; Seleman was fined and placed under 
bonds for future good behavior. 

CHIEF JUDGES OF COURT OF CEXERAL SESSIONS. 

Henry Jocelyn, a magistrate of the Province of 
Maine, under Gorges, moved to Jamestow^n, Pemaquid, 
and in 1677 ^^^ ^^^^ him holding court as chief justice of 
the session and head of the judiciary of the ducal state. 
At Jamestown, he lived and died prior to 1683. Eminent 
for loyalty to the crown, peace and good order, fidelity 
to his public duties and uprightness of life. Chief Justice 
Henr.y Jocelyn died in his judicial robes, unsullied, and 
was buried at Jamestown, Pemaquid, between the 24th of 
August, 1682, and the loth of May, 1683, his remains 
still laying within the confines of the Old Fort cemetery.. 



27 

Public necessity required the vacant chief's seat at the 
head of the court of general sessions to be filled and on 
the 28th of April, 1684, Thomas Giles was commissioned 
chief justice of the same court. 

Judge Thomas Giles was a land owner and of 
agricultural habits, residing near the F'ort. with outlaying 
farms near Pemaquid F"alls above. He was a strict 
observer of the Sabbath, and otherwise seems to have 
been a conscientious and God fearing man, and exerted 
himself, not without difficulty, in correcting abuses of 
military authority. During his administration the revo- 
lution of William and Mary occurred. The English 
throne, under the Stuart dynast\-. tottered and fell, ending 
the Duke of York's jurisdiction at Pemaquid in 1689. 

The P"rench were alert to suppress English suprem- 
acy in New England, and stirred up Indian allies to 
improve the opportunity of public confusion and anarchy 
incident to a change of dynasty. The combined forces 
planned invasion and overthrow of British rule and to 
seize the P^nglish P'ort Charles of the ducal province, and 
subdue the old county of Cornwall. It was the 12th of 
August, 1689. Judge Giles had gone to his farms at the 
Ealls with his little sons to superintend harvesting of 
crops and the care of his corn field. It was noon. Dinner 
had been served to his workmen. Giles and his sons 
were still at the farm-house and workmen dispersed to 
their labor. Suddenly the guns of Fort Charles sounded 
an alarm. All were startled. The Judge said he hoped 
it heralded good news of reinforcements arrived at the 
F"ort, with soldiers returned who had been drawn off. 
The next moment a savage yell and the war-hoop with 
crash of volleys of musketry froni a hill in the rear 



28 

shocked the ear. This din of war brought the Judge to 
his feet, crying, "What now ? What now ?" It is the 
story of his boy, a child, his youngest, an eye-witness. 
His father seemed handhng a gun. Moxus, sachem of 
the Kennebec Indians, led the fray. The child tied. A 
painted savage with a gun and cutlass, the glitter of 
which dazed the child, who, falling to the earth, was 
seized and pinioned. Led back to his father he saw him 
walking slowly, pale and bloody. The men at harvest in 
the field were shot down where the)- stood or as they Hed 
to the flats, and others were tomahawed, crying, "O, 
Lord ; O, Lord." Those taken captive were made to 
sit down till the slaughter ended and then led towards 
the Port, a mile and a half distant, on the east side of the 
river. Smoke and crash of fire-arms were seen and heard 
on all sides. The old Fort Charles was in a blaze which 
with the roar and fiash of cannon added to the din and 
dismay. 

The Judge was brought in. Moxus expressing his 
personal regrets, saying. "Strange Indians did the 
mischief." The Judge replied : "I am a dying man ; and 
ask no favor but a chance to pray with m)- bo)s !" Then 
earnestly commending them to the care and favor of God, 
with the calmness of assuring faith, took leave of his 
children with a blessing, encouaging them with the hope 
of a meeting hereafter in the better land. Pale and faint 
with the loss of blood now gushing from his shoes with 
tottering steps he was led aside. "We heard the blow of 
the hatchet, but neither sigh nor groan." is the story of 
the child. Seven bullets had pierced the body, which was 
buried in a brush heap where he fell. It was in view of 
the Fort where the smoke and thunder of battle ragged 



29 

till surrender of the Fort antl town was achieved, and 
some twenty houses of Jamestown were burned to the 
ground. This catastrophe ended the civil, religious and 
industrial existence of old Cornwall County with its 
Pemaquid dependencies of Popham's Fort. Smith's St. 
Johnstown, the Aldworth and Elbridge Plantation of 
Jamestown, and the new Dartmouth municpality of 
"Sheepscot Farms" of near three-quarters of a century's 
standing and growth. With the death of Chief Justice 
Giles, the ancient aristocratic organization, social, civil 
and religious, with old Cornwall County passed away. 

REVIVAL OF CIVIL ()R( LWIZATK )\. 

The result of the fall of Fort Charles made the ducal 
province subject to Massachusetts Bay jurisdiction under 
Governor William Phipps, a native of Pemaquid, who 
erected the famous stone fort, William Henry, in 1692. 

The civil existence of the county of Cornwall was, 
however, ended in the catastrophes of French and Indian 
assault, upon the capture of Jamestown and the fall of Fort 
Charles of Pemaquid, 1689 - collapse of the Stuart 
dynasty, involving the tragic death of Chief Justice 
Thomas Giles at Pemaquid Falls, and the capture of his 
wife and children. 

Town and court records, title deeds, and public 
papers were all scattered and destroyed ; the coimtr\- 
made desolate and waste. The ancient plantations of the 
ducal province became solitudes, and so remainetl till 
1 7 16, when Georgetown, embodying the Arrowsic Island 
re-settlements of 1 7 14, was incorporated by Massachu- 
setts and made the shire of a new^ county called Yorkshire. 

Anno Domini, 1728, Samuel Denny became a citizen 
of the New Town and had his Garrison House near the 



30 



Watts Fort, head of Butler's Cove, where a meeting 
house stood in a hamlet of some twent)- or thirt)- home- 
steads. Denny was an educated Englishman, industrious 
and thriftful. and also a civil magistrate. There he held 
a court and, it is said, acted as his own bailiff. John 
Stinson, also, was a Yorkshire magistrate, whose jurisdic- 
tion covered Wiscasset ; and Jonathan Williamson of 
Wiscasset was a deputy sheriff. But no court of record 
existed till the organization of Lincoln County, June 19, 
1760. 

The interest and intluence of the old Pl)-mouth land 
company fostered the new county developement, caused 
to be incorporated a new town on its lands, called 
Pownalboro, as the shire town of the new count}- of Lin- 
coln, and erected a court house and jail on the east bank 
of the Kennebec, built of hewn timber, 
succeeded 



Lincoln succeeded to 
the jurisdictional territory 
of old Cornwall, the 
province of 1664, embrac- 
ing the kingdom of Pema- 
quid, of the colonial trans- 
actions of 1607. 

The oroanization of a 
court of record for Lincoln 
in 1762, laid the founda- 



tions of Lincoln bar. The 
court retained the st)'le of 
the old Cornwall courts, 
court of sessions, with sit- 
tings on the second Tues- 
days of June and Septem- 
ber. 




Sa.miki. Dknnv Fort. 

The Homestead of ihe first ludge of 
Lincoln I'lar, Samuel l)enny, near Hutler's 
Cove, Arrow sic Island, 172S — 30 



3^ 

Samuel Uenii)-. William Lithoow, Aaron Hinckley 
and John North were its judges. Its first session opened 
as follows, viz : 
"Lincoln SS. 

Anno Regni Regis tirtii, Magnae Britainiae, F"ranciae 
et Hiberniae primo": and the first order declared Jona- 
than Bowman clerk ; and the next the establisment of a 
seal, thus : "At his Majesty's court of general sessions of 
the peace at Pownalboro, within and for the count)- of 
Lincoln, on the first Tuesday of June, being the first day 
of the month, 1762, it was further ordered, that a seal 
presented b)- Samuel Denny, Esq., the motto whereof 
being a cup and three mullets (being the lawful coat of 
arms of the said Denny's family) with said Denn)'s name 
at large in the verge thereof, be accepted, and that it be 
established to be the common seal of this court. ' 

Li 1786, the supreme court of Massachusetts beg^an 
sessions in the old Pownalboro court house. 

\n 1794, court holdings were changed from the 
Kennebec to the Sheepscot Precinct of Pownalboro, at 
W'iscasset Point, with alternate sittings at Hallowell. 
Gushing, Sewall, Sargent and Sumner were justices 
presiding. The first session after this change had a 
formal and dignified opening. Three sheriffs in cocked 
hats, armed with swords and bearing long white sta\es, 
marched in procession before the judges, the bar follow- 
ine to the beat of a drum. From then till now, Lincoln 
bar has worked out the issues of law and justice here, at 
Wiscasset Point, a site of one of the old Sheepscot 
Farms, granted b)- Governor Dougan, a go\ernor of 
Pemaquid and dependencies of the old ducal i)ro\ince of 
1664. 



THE CLIMAX. 

Cr.OSE OF THE ACORX TERM. THE FAREWELL. 

The planting" a baby oak on the court-house lawn at 
Wiscasset, and an evening banquet, in honor of Chief 
Justice Peters, were the concluding exercises of the 
occasion. A thrifty five-foot sprout from the Penobscot 
Oak had been carefully selected, prepared and nursed 
for the occassion by the Lincoln bar, to be set out and 
fostered as the "Peters Oak." 

During the court recess of Friday, the third of 
November, 1899', the bar gathered at the place of plant- 
ing. Headed and led by the Wiscasset Cornet Band, 
the youth from the Wiscasset academy, the children from 
the grammar schools and primary depatments of the 
village, and their teachers, two hundred strong, marched 
in procession to the planting ground, and formed a 
hollow square about the bar members and the little tree. 
Geo. B. Sawyer, Esq., set the sprout with a new spade, 
cheered by cadences of appropiate strains of soft music 
from the band. He also explained the novel scene. 
William H. Hilton, Esq., formally dedicated the little 
tree as the "Peters Oak," as the president and in behalf 
of the Lincoln bar ; whereupon R. K. Sewall, Esq., 
moved that the transaction be entered of record on the 
bar registry, which was adopted. R. S. Partrdge, Esq., 
made a spirited address of thanks to the school children 
for their sympathy and aid, and in eulogy of the honored 
chief justice ; and the whole closed with the song of 
"America." and three cheers for the Chief. At 9 o'clock, 
1'. M., the banquet at the Hilton House was opened. 
There were a dozen courses. "The brains and fame of 



33 

the State of Maine were there," to participate in the 
quiet, heartfelt farewell of Lincoln bar to the justice. 
Most of the associate justices of the Supreme Court of 
Maine added to the eminence of the occasion, with the 
United States senator, Eugene Hale. The post prandial 
exercises were opened by President Hilton in a brief, 
appropritate address of welcome, as follows : — 

Brethren and Friends: — In behalf of Lincoln bar 
it affords me great pleasure to euXtend to you a cordial 
greeting. We are glad to find you within our borders ; 
we are happy to meet you around this board. It is well 
that we should occasionally lay aside the cares and per- 
plexities incident to our profession and cultivate the so- 
cial side of life. While your neighborly, brotherly and 
social qualities are universally recognized, yet it is well 
known and understood that a special purpose promjjts 
us to gather here this evening. We have assembled to 
do honor to our worthy Chief. We wish to demonstrate 
and emphasize our profound respect and affection for 
him. 

I have always believed and have often declared that, 
in m\- judgment, the highest attainment to which a man 
may aspire is, that after a long, useful and successful 
business career, with a mind richly stored with knowledge, 
and a heart full of kindness, and personally radiating 
warm sunshine, he shall in the afternoon of life become 
a living magnet, drawing to and around him not only 
men, but children, who will delight in his companionship 
and in his entertaining and instructive conversation. 
Very like such a man is our distinguished guest. Chief 
Justice Peters. 

Brethren : Salute your Chief. I propose the health 
of Chief Justice John A. Peters, with the hope that many 



years of usefulness, content and happiness may be added 
to the years already so well spent. 

His honor was greeted by a standing recognition of 
the propriety of the toast, and rising said in reply : — 

"I thank you for this dinner and this assemblage of 
friends. As you all know, I am about to retire from the 
bench of Maine. I am proud to say, I am doing it while 
I have mind and sense enough to know what I am doing. 
I have always been facinated by old Lincoln, and held 
more terms of court here than in any other county in 
the State, except, possibly, Penobscot. Lamb has said on 
a like testimonial it 'was like passing from life into eter- 
nity.' Well, I am not ready for eternity ; and I do not 
believe that eternity is ready for me. But I have a sort 
of indescribable feeling of being buried alive, in thus 
taking leave of my duties on the bench. Yet I tell you, 
gentlemen, if I am to be buried alive, I would rather be 
buried in old Lincoln county than anywhere else in the 
world. 

An eastern monarch offered a reward for a new 
pleasure. Were he alive today, that sought for pleasure 
would be his, were he to come to old Wiscasset . . . stroll 
to the quiet old court house . . . ramble across the long 
bridge to the island . . . and bring up uncier the old oak 
'Penobscot.' 

The toast master for the occasion was R. S. Partridge, 
Esq., who introduced the bar speeches by proposing 
"Lincoln County, the Mother of Counties," and called 
for R. K. Sewall, Esq., who responded as follows : — 

May it please the court, members of the bar and 
gentlemen of the jurisprudence of Maine : As I rise to 
answer this call, I am deeply impressed, almost startled, 
with the fact, that we are standing on this occasion among 



the centuries, makino- histor)-. at work on the capstone of 
a new niche, as a chmax in the life of Lincoln bar. if not 
in the jurisprudence of our State ! 

I am oiven the motherhood of Lincoln as a theme. 
''Mother!'' Who does not appreciate its import? IIk- 
word itself is an epitome of all that is true and tend(T in 
affection, faithful in nurture, enduring in sjmpath)-, in 
humanit)! It suggests a look into the cradle, at the in- 
fancy of law within the ancient jurisdictional territory of 
Lincoln Bar. 

On the twentieth of August, 1607, was organized the 

first court of record, with a seal and marshal, in New 

England, and within the jurisdictional precints of Lincoln 

bar of old, under royal charter dated April 10, 1606, 

drawn up by the chief justice of the bar of England, to 

plant the soil of New England with the privileges and 

principles of the common law of England, as a colonizing 

factor. The proceedure of the administration whereof 

Lincoln bar was representative, has reached a climax this 

term of court. Having brought forward the skeleton of 

legal proceedure and principles of colonial antecedents of 

the jurisdictional territory of Lincoln bar, to be crowned 

with memorial s)mbols ; shall it be with oak ? 

■Hark ! Is it a scnig of echoing centuries? 

On the banks of the Sheepscot near the old fort, 

Chief Justice Peters was caught in an oak. 

Not like Absalom by the hair of his head, 

But in toils of beauty and strength it is said. 

This oak responsive to the judicial caress 

Put out its fronds with a view to impress 

A due sense of gratitude and promised fruit. 

Acorns soon fell in copious showers 

To win the judge from all other bowers. 

And give a new name to judicial sitting, 

A name in fact of rural fitting. 

So we have it now in full, and firm 



36 

Onr Chief Justice Peters' "Acorn Term." 

The oak and its acorns have blocked the way, 

To close a term with a gala day : 

Not with Longfellow hanging his crane, 

Illustrative of life's domestic train : 

Nor yet with fronds of the old tree top, 

But the hanging of an acorn drop. 

Or it preferred, you soon shall see 

Memorial hidings in a junior tree ; 

And that none shall ever doubt or croak 

It's a scion true of the "Penobscot Oak" ! 

The stor)' we will give in a summary of this judicial 
finding. 

In his service on the bench of Lincoln bar, at Wis- 
casset, his honor became enamored of the pure spring 
water of the old town ; also, of its rural environments. 
The labors of the day suggested recreation and exercise, 
by rambling in the woods, and extensive walks. Lured 
by the long bridge to quaff refreshing sea airs across the 
Sheepscot tides, and to revel in the scenic beauties of 
landscape and forest attractions of "Folly Lsland," the 
site of the ancient military defenses of Wiscasset Harbor 
and the heart of Maine as well, the island still pitted with 
earthworks frowning over the narrows, and through the 
port-holes of the gun deck of a wooden castle, known as 
the "block house," the judge encountered an oak tree of 
remarkable features. It excited interest and commanded 
admiration. Members of the bar were wont to share his 
honor's athletic perambulations. 

It was the October term of Lincoln bar, A. D. 1873, 
and Wales Hubbard and Hiram Bliss, Esqs., were with 
the judge at the oak finding of the court. It was a beau- 
tiful October afternoon, the party came upon the tree. 
The sight of the tree arrested the party, striking them 
with awe and the judge with inspiration. 



37 

In its proportions, the tree seemed majestic ; not ^o 
exceptional!) tall as it was massi\-e and heav)-. Its wide- 
spreading branches were large and ponderous. 

The character of its fruit was a matter of admiration, 
and won marked attention of all as it lay spread on the 
ground. Its acorns were then and are now the largc^st 
ever seen in Maine. Ever)- nut ])ick(xl in season, is 
thoroughly sound and handsome in shape: shells smooth 
as if varnished, and almost uniformly exact in size with 
each other. 

There was then no evidence that the place where the 
tree stood had been frequented. It appeared a stranger 
to humanity. 

Its site is one of the most picturesque spots on the 
river or ba)-. Fhe judicial tramp had been one of dis- 
covery. The discovery called for a name. What should 
the tree be called ? The discussion suggested a variety 
of names. The judge was in doubt. He thought the 
most appropriate name would be "Neal Dow Oak," be- 
cause it drank nothing but water and takers an)- cpianity 
of that ! Finall)- the problem was solved in a call for 
"Penobscot" ; and Penobscot Oak has ever since attach- 
ed. It has been the charm of the venerable chief justice's 
October term, for )-ears ; and this term he; has been wont 
to call "Acorn Term." 

In the plentitude of his inspiration, the judge has 
profoundly and instructively soliloquized, ravished with 
visions of psychological novelties, in possible virtues of 
vegetable life iii his favorite oak, he asks, "Has it sen- 
sation, or the function of thought ^ " 

His answer, "Certainly! an) thing that is alixe, has 
sensation to a certain degree. This monarch looks as if 
it might know something! It can adapt itself to storms 



3^ 

and wind. It is said the difference between man and the 
tirades of animal Hfe below, is, that while animals may 
be conscious they do not know they are conscious, but 
man is conscious that he is conscious. 

So vegetation in the form of a huge oak, may have 
consciousness. Who knows? 

"This great tree has likewise in form and shape its 
twists and turns, its straightness and crooks, its upward 
slopes and downward declensions, its vigor and weakness, 
its beauties and deformities, like to many a human being, 
illustrative of character, mentall)' and bodily. Most any 
character, from the judge on the bench himself, to the 
court crier, or janitor of court room where the judge 
sits, may be found in the multifarious limbs of this great 
oak tree ! And there, innumerable, are both beauties 
and deformities yet to be discovered in the manifold 
branches thereof, illustrative of human character through 
the imagination of the philosophic humorist and investi- 
gator." 

Such lessons are the judicial suggestion of the find 
of a Penobscot oak on the Sheepscot, in a niche of the 
history of Lincoln bar. 

But the oak has a history as a memorial. In vege- 
tation it is the forest king. In industrial hands, it is the 
strongest rib of the builder's art. In the annals of hu- 
manity, it has been the hiding place of precious memo- 
ries : a beacon light to retrospection : a charm to sacred 
association, a symbol to inspiration of immortality ! 

This forest king to the Roman was "Ouercus," and 
to the Greek "Druis." Near two thousand years before 
Christ, and more than thirt)'-six hundred years ago, 
an oak stood a memorial factor to the family of Jacob, the 
Hebrew^ a monument of fraternal goodwnll, in a family 



39 

jar; and was made a memorial of the piirL^^ation of liis 
household of heathanism. 

The strange gods of his family — "their earrings" and 
trappings of idolatry, offensive to the conscience of the 
old patriarch — "he hid under an oak of Sechem." This 
endowed it with a religious character, and so made the 
oak a hiding place from sin in aid of reformation. 

The dead nurse of Jacob's mother was buried under 
an oak to mark the spot as a "jjlace of weeping," and so 
made it a memorial of departed worth and a keepsake of 
affectionate regard. 

But the oak has been used to have legal matters in 
memorial keeping. Joshua, the great flebrew cajjtain, 
during the Canaanitish wars, codified rules of govcn-n- 
ment for his nomadic race ; and when he had written up 
the book of the law of the Lord, he took a great stone 
and set it up under an oak. (Jos. xxiv. 26.) 

The stone and the oak were used as memorials of a 
legal crisis in the nation, viz : codification of its laios. 
Gideon too, in a crucial stage of servitude of the Hebrew 
race, in seeking divine relief, met God under an "oak of 
Ophra." 

These facts show the early eminence of the oak, in 
use for memorial service, in the dawn of civilization. 
Hallowed memories were its secrets. 

The oak in history apjK^ars to hold no mean distinc- 
tion as a memorial of beneficient events in societ)-, worth)- 
of perpetuity. 

Its robust durability is suggestive of fitness for me- 
morial uses. It has therefore been built into human 
history as a rib of perpetuity of atfcxtionate and sacred 
r('minisct;nces. 



40 

Humanity has voiced the idea of immortahty : and 
in the oak, in the ideaHsm of nature, to our Saxon fathers, 
its symbol. 

The Druids of Britain hung their memories of the 
past, as well as hopes of the futiu'e, on the oak in the 
tree tops of sacred groves. 

Is it not fit, therefore, that the bar of old Lincoln, 
crowned with hoary memories of the colonial local civil 
life of New England of near three centuries, — the suc- 
cessor of old Cornwall in jurisdictional service of the 
common law of England, should take the oak as its 
memorial keepsake and adopt the family of the Penob- 
scot oak (a loan from the Sheepscot,) and make it a liv- 
ing symbol of the service of the venerable chief justice 
of the bench and bar of Maine? 

Shall we not adopt its scion, or acorn, in perpetuity 
of the respect and affection of Lincoln bar, for our hon- 
ored chief justice of the judiciary of Maine, John A. Pe- 
ters, of Bangor, whose "acorn terms" have so honored 
and adorned our bar? 

Shall we not hold these living symbols in perpetuity 
of his services to society and civilization (and of partial- 
ity to our bar), of the green old age of our venerable 
chief, and in memorial of a useful life, in conserving the 
peace and good order of society, the stability of our civ- 
ilization, the eminence of Maine, in a wise and just juris- 
prudence and adornment of her bench with decisions of 
law, of merit and sense ? 

To Lincoln bar it will be a crown of honor that the 
honored chief of the judiciary of Maine has made it the 
sittings of the "acorn terms" of his court, and so given it 
a place in the niche of the legal history of New Eng- 
land ; and the name of Peters a worthy place in the 
crowning eminence of the grand old past of Lincoln 
county. 

Now, gentlemen, with an apology for the use of 
your time and patience — and of the thunder of the chief 
justice, to get the lightning for this occasion — I take my 
leave of the motherhood of Lincoln bar. 



18 1 






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